Are your keywords fighting an internal battle for ranking positions? Does one URL sometimes rank over another for a particular keyword? Learn how to identify and counteract internal keyword cannibalization in this article.
Key Takeaway – The most important things in brief:
- SEO Effects: Keyword cannibalism can be both positive (more traffic opportunities) and negative (wrong URL ranks, ineffective ranking) for SEO.
- Causes of the problem: Competing subpages for the same keywords lead to relevance problems, ranking losses, and complicate SEO analyses.
- Detection: Tools such as Sistrix or the Google Search Console help to identify affected keywords and URLs.
- Solutions: Merge content, remove or deindex unnecessary pages, use unique keywords, and internal links.
What is keyword cannibalization?
Keyword cannibalism is one of the more complex topics in SEO, and it’s not inherently bad. For example, if your domain ranks in the top 10 for a keyword with two pages, this can actually be extremely positive for you, as it gives you even more opportunities to attract relevant traffic.
It is becoming increasingly common for more than one page of a domain to rank in the top 10 on Google.
If the wrong URL ranks for your keyword, it can hurt your domain and the achievement of your online marketing goals. If URL A and URL B rank for your keyword sometimes, or if two URLs rank at the same time but neither performs particularly well, this is negative keyword cannibalization, and you should take action to address it.
Why you should avoid keyword cannibalization
Keyword cannibalization occurs when different pages on your website compete for the same keywords. This phenomenon poses a significant problem for Googlebot and your SEO efforts, as it can significantly impact the relevance and effectiveness of your content. Here are some reasons why you should avoid keyword cannibalization at all costs:
- Relevance issues for Googlebot: If multiple subpages of your website are optimized for the same keyword, Googlebot will have difficulty identifying the most relevant and important URL for the corresponding semantic context. This can lead to none of your pages achieving optimal rankings for that keyword.
- Ranking losses: Keyword cannibalization can cause previously well-ranked pages to fall back in the Google index. Even new SEO measures can be ineffective due to keyword cannibalization, as they don’t deliver the desired ranking improvements.
- Inefficient content use. If your domain is indexed with multiple URLs for a single search term, traffic is spread across different pages instead of being concentrated on one page. This leads to users encountering different content and potentially taking different actions when searching for the same topic. This makes strategic and efficient content use impossible.
- Complicated SEO analysis and reporting: Duplicate rankings for the same keyword complicate the evaluation of your SEO efforts. URLs and keywords that appear multiple times in search results are difficult to analyze and evaluate, making it more difficult to create SEO reports and analyze your website’s performance.
Keyword cannibalization often occurs gradually
Websites thrive on new content, and content marketing is (rightfully) receiving increasing attention. Creating new pages and addressing new topics as part of content management is usually part of the SEO strategy. No matter how good new content is, it carries the risk of keyword cannibalization. This often happens gradually. Webmasters first create a product page and then report on the new product in their blog, or a topic is covered on two pages, each from a different perspective.
Which page should rank? If you don’t answer this question, or can’t answer it, Google won’t be able to answer it either, and your competitors, who have a clear answer, will rank better than you.
What indicates keyword cannibalism?
Many sites are affected by keyword cannibalization. To detect keyword cannibalization, you should monitor your rankings. You can do this, for example, with Sistrix, the Google Search Console (GSC), or with a simple site command in Google Search.
How to resolve keyword cannibalism and achieve better rankings
Once you’ve identified keyword cannibalization, you can often resolve it quite easily. Take a close look at your pages. Why are there two pages on the topic of “cat tree,” and which page is actually meant to rank for that specific keyword and generate sales? Why are two pages ranking for “vinyl wallpaper”? Is one of them truly optimized for the keyword, or do I need a new landing page specifically optimized for the topic? Also consider the potential conversion rate and user experience.
If you have too many pages on a topic, there are several options. For example, you can merge the content of page A and page B. One of the two URLs can then be deleted and redirected to the existing page via a 301.
If you can’t merge content and delete pages, you can also set the less relevant page to “noindex .” This way, users can still access the page via the site’s navigation, but it will no longer compete with the other similar pages in the Google index.
What can you do to prevent cannibalism from occurring in the first place?
Always consider the following points to avoid keyword cannibalism in the first place:
- Specify the main keyword for a URL: There can only be one URL for this keyword. Make sure you don’t create any additional pages for this keyword.
- Link internally with unique link text: Always link your URLs internally with the page’s main keyword. Never link two different pages with the same link text.
- Create new pages for keywords that are important to you and for which you have not yet defined a specific page.
Always keep in mind: If you don’t have an answer as to which page should rank for which keyword, how is Google supposed to find the answer?
Our conclusion on keyword cannibalization
The problem of keyword cannibalization offers many opportunities to optimize and better structure your website. It’s worth taking a look here. Various tools can help you track down affected URLs and resolve keyword cannibalization. And by optimizing your content marketing strategy so that there is always a unique main keyword per URL in the future, you can prevent keyword cannibalization from occurring in the first place.
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